


Favourable

by StaticLantern



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 19:57:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2081154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StaticLantern/pseuds/StaticLantern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Watching was… therapeutic. It was relaxing, it kept Will’s mind at ease. And it seemed to keep Matthew calm too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Favourable

**Author's Note:**

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> 
> Http://birdwithakeyboard.tumblr.com/

Watching was… therapeutic. It was relaxing, it kept Will’s mind at ease. And it seemed to keep Matthew calm too.

Will was in the hospital for a good month after Hannibal left. His mind had been in a disarray since then. Matthew, of course, was locked up for attempted murder. Unfortunately trying to murder someone who was also a murderer didn’t get him out of jail, but Will managed to get him a few… privileges. One of them was access to the pool downstairs. It was a therapy pool, some of the psychiatrists theorized it helped certain patients/inmates relax and deal with their aggressiveness in a passive way that didn’t exactly build muscle mass like access to the weights in prison did. Overall it seemed to work.  
Will didn’t work for the FBI anymore, so what they thought of him visiting the criminal didn’t exactly count anymore. They’d voiced their concerns, made their pleas, Will didn’t really care though. He didn’t care about a lot of things these days. He was tired. He was sick of chasing Hannibal. If Doctor Lecter wanted to run, so be it. Will was done trying to make it his business anymore. He considered himself… retired.

Watching Matthew swim was relaxing, watching him move up and down the lanes. Matthew for the most part ignored him. They didn’t speak, though Will could tell Matthew watched him whenever he could. He guessed Matthew felt inadequate, having failed to kill Hannibal like he’d promised. Will didn’t care of course. He was somewhat relieved Matthew didn’t speak to him, he wouldn’t have anything to say anyways. So it wasn’t exactly a shining moment for Will when Matthew finished another lap and rested on the wall, staring across the floor at Will, who always sat beside the door, on the floor.  
Matthew still stayed silent, but he watched Will through dark goggles. After a minute, he reached up and pulled the goggles away, as well as the swim cap, and dropped them on the floor in front of him. He dipped under the water, wetting his hair down. When he came up, he looked like he’d decided on talking finally.  
“They told me Hannibal ran.” He said, his voice echoing off the walls.  
“They weren’t lying. I’m surprised they said anything though.” Will replied.  
“Are you going after him?”  
“No.”  
“You don’t want him dead anymore?” Matthew rested his chin on his arms.  
Will was silent. Matthew’s words rang back in his head. What did he want? He didn’t want anything in particular. He wanted a quiet life, teaching his students, feeding his dogs, maybe a friend, maybe a girlfriend. He wanted to eat food that didn’t take four days to cook and didn’t contain human meat. He supposed he just wanted what any sane person would want.  
“What I want… What I want is to forget him.” Will replied. “Dead, forgotten. It’s essentially the same thing, though some people might beg to differ that being forgotten is somehow worse than being dead.”  
“Always the cryptic one.” Matthew replied. “Are you-”  
“I’m not mad at you, Matthew. I don’t think I ever really convinced myself you would be able to kill Hannibal anyways. I was using you, part of you had to realize that.”  
“Of course I knew that.” Matthew replied, cocking his head slightly. “I didn’t mind though.”  
“Tell me, Matthew, I don’t doubt by now that you figured out I didn’t commit those murders before I was released, no, Doctor Lecter made sure I knew that. So then if you weren’t doing all that for me because you… admired my work… what reason did you have for doing anything at all for me?” Will cocked his head, mirroring Matthew’s movements.  
“Murderer, or not, you still understand me.”  
“I understand a lot of people.”  
“Well not a lot of people understand me. We’re alike, Mr. Graham. I know you don’t really feel inclined to know me, I knew that as soon as you came in here. That’s why I had to do something for you. So you would notice me, so I could have a chance to impress you.”  
“So were peacocking.” Will replied dryly.  
“I thought the hawk metaphor described it nicely.”  
They fell silent again, and Matthew slowly pulled himself out of the pool. Once on his feet, he walked over to Will, sitting down beside him, his back facing the pool, his face turned towards Will.  
“You don’t have to tense up, I’m not going to hurt you.” Matthew replied, smirking slightly. “Hand me my jacket please?”  
Will reached over to the chair beside him that held all of Matthew’s things, selecting the jacket from the pile and handing it to Matthew.  
“I get the feeling you still want that from me.” Will replied.  
“Yeah, well, I think asking you to get me out of jail probably isn’t on the table.”  
“Not really.”  
“How about you just visit me then.” Matthew replied, his smile still there, if not more so.  
“I do visit you.”  
“Not at the pool. Visit me at the actual prison too.”  
“You’re attempting to solicit a friendship from me.” Will stated, turning his head slightly.  
“It would be… favourable, on my part. And I’d like it to be on your part as well.” Matthew chuckled.  
Will was quiet for a long time, simply watching Matthew. After a moment, he pulled himself to his feet, offering out his hand to help Matthew up as well.  
“Favourable.” Will repeated, a bemused smile fixed on his face.  
“Other things would be preferable, but I could always use friends.” Matthew replied.  
“I see. Well let’s just see where the pool visits go now that you’re actually talking. Then we’ll see where… favourable gets us.”

**Author's Note:**

> It ended up being kind of short, I'm thinking I might add a few more chapters to it and see where it goes eventually.
> 
> \--------------
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr!
> 
> Http://birdwithakeyboard.tumblr.com/


End file.
